Great controls and well done visuals aren't the end of the good news.
I picked up this game because of it's praise from multiple game critics (excluding the fine gentlemen from this website) and the peon reviewers -like me- alike.
Let's break this down...
Graphics: Well done, reminiscent of the visuals the top GameCube games displayed a while back.
Music: Nothing memorable, but nothing unpleasant either.
Controls: This game's impressive controls are what made it (somewhat) famous. When it's your first first-person-shooter, the controls have one HELL of a learning curve, but when you get it down, it's a marvel to behold.
Gameplay: The game focuses on using scientific weapons and gadgetry to get from level to level, all while fighting mutated aliens and human Trust agents. You will have to blow up "conduits" or gateways to alien strongholds that seem to have an infinite number of enemies to heave themselves at you. Gamespot referred to this as 'cheap' and 'frustrating', which in some instances I actually agree, but most of the time this doesn't bother me. I see it for what it is, an attempt to justify enemy spawning.
There are a few causes for frustration.
- The occasionally horrible collision detection. (enemies through the wall)
- Throwing a grenade and killing yourself if your not careful with the nunchuck.
- The game being reduced to a bout of trial and error every once in a while.
I can easily forgive these problems. But hey, that's just me. I'm not you, Mr. Reader, all I can do is say give this game a shot. Borrow it from a friend or rent it. There's a good chance you might like it. If you don't, sorry I wasted your time.
Upon retrospect, I have decided to reduce the games score to an 8.0, simply for the fact that the game relies heavily on spawned enemies to make the action last longer, and these constantly spawning enemies can cause great frustration. My biggest scenario is as such:
You're hiding in cover, and agents are coming at you. If you kill them, they blow up. So if one man is close to you and you kill him, you can't stay right next to him but getting away from him will forfeit your cover. It's not just hard, it's lame. Thus I have reduced this game's score by 1/2 a point. Nothing serious, but something definitely worth mentioning.